The Liberty Hotel: a night behind bars

One of the most luxurious hotels in Boston is housed in a beautifully restored prison. An overnight stay is a unique experience.

Overlooking the Charles River is a former 19th-century prison turned five-star hotel under the Starwood group. Until 1990, the granite building housed somewhat more constrained guests, like Malcolm X and Frank Abagnale, the latter played by Leonardo DiCaprio in Steven Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can. Today, 300 rooms and 10 luxurious suites in soft, bright colours have replaced the prison cells. But it's still difficult to ignore the building's penitentiary past.
Under the 30-meter-high wooden rotunda in a lobby flanked by tall arched windows are vestiges of prison cells and the original bridges to four floors. There is also many a wink and a nudge about the Liberty Hotel's past: at one of its three restaurants, Clink, the wait staff is dressed in uniforms befitting the theme. And the Alibi bar, located in what used to be a cell for detainees to sober up in—with bars intact—is decorated with pictures of errant celebrities and the reasons for their arrests.